South San Joaquin Irrigation District marks century

MANTECA - A water district that forever changed the face of south San Joaquin County celebrated 100 years Wednesday.

Alex Breitler

MANTECA - A water district that forever changed the face of south San Joaquin County celebrated 100 years Wednesday.

And almond farmer Bob Schulz has witnessed much of that history himself.

Born in Escalon in 1937, Schulz watched as family farms - including his own - converted dairy fields to orchard crops thanks to the district's reliable supply of Stanislaus River water. And he watched as that water spurred growth in nearby towns and cities.

Just once can Schulz remember losing a crop, and that was during the state's worst drought, in the late 1970s. Such are the benefits of belonging to one of the oldest water districts in California and being among the first in line for water.

"This would be a desert if it wasn't for the irrigation," said Schulz, a district board member for 32 years.

South San Joaquin Irrigation District's wealth of water has benefited many outside its relatively small pocket of southeast San Joaquin County.

The district sells water to the Stockton East Water District, which treats it and delivers it to Stockton. And earlier this decade, South San Joaquin water began flowing to Manteca, Lathrop and Tracy, reducing those cities' dependency on groundwater.

"You've got cities both inside and outside (the district) that are really benefiting," South San Joaquin General Manager Jeff Shields said.

The district formed in 1909 to address contradictory problems: not enough water and too much of it. Without infrastructure to harness the river, farmers' crops either withered or drowned.

South San Joaquin and its sister district, the Oakdale Irrigation District, sold $1.9million in bonds - "You can imagine how happy people were about that," Shields joked - to pay for dams and canals to hold and move the water.

In a few short years, the population in the district grew from 3,000 to 15,000. Its irrigated acreage quintupled.

"In hindsight, it's just a miracle what's grown out of that decision to form the district," Shields said.

When New Melones Dam was built in 1979, the two districts were given first dibs on about 600,000 acre-feet of water. As a result, even this year - the state's third consecutive dry year - South San Joaquin has a full supply of water. Enough, in fact, that board members agreed this month to sell 7,000 acre-feet to the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, in a drought-stricken area south of the Delta.

Wednesday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered to celebrate the anniversary. They ate roast beef and watched grainy footage of dam construction.

The district's peers from Stockton East were there, too. Board member Paul Sanguinetti said it's been a privilege to be on the receiving end of South San Joaquin's water.

"Their water rights are important," he said. "If there's extra water in the area, we've got to utilize it in the area."